Evening Update: Air Canada’s pandemic woes cast shadow over early signs of economic recovery

Note: This newsletter will pause on Wednesday for Canada Day, but will return on Thursday.

Good evening, let’s start with today’s top stories:

Despite a Statistics Canada report that pointed to signs of an economy in recovery after plunging to record lows in April, Air Canada showed today why a return to normalcy is a long way off.

The largest airline in the country said it will shutter operations at eight regional airports and suspend 30 domestic routes – including Moncton-Halifax, Windsor-Montreal and Regina-Winnipeg – due to COVID-19. News affecting the travel industry didn’t stop there: in a more hopeful move, the EU included Canada on its list of countries from which non-essential travellers could arrive.

On the ground, governments continue to grapple with how to contain the virus. Amid increasing calls to make face masks mandatory in public indoor spaces, Toronto mayor John Tory proposed a bylaw today that would do just that. Still, reports The Globe’s Jeff Gray, it will be up to Torontonians to adhere to the new rules. “There won’t really be an aggressive enforcement, to be candid about it,” said Tory. “We don’t have the resources to be able to go around and look at every store, or look at every person that’s in one of those places.”

In the United States, which was left off the EU’s list, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that the country could see 100,000 new COVID-19 cases daily if current trends hold.

Shrouded in secrecy, China passes new national security law for Hong Kong

China’s criminalization of dissent in Hong Kong has become a reality in a new security regime whose exact details only became public at 11 p.m. local time last night. While Carrie Lam, the territory’s Beijing-appointed chief executive, heralded the new legislation for making residents safer, pro-democracy activists said it put an end to Hong Kong’s special status and autonomy within China, exactly 23 years after the handover from British rule.

Governments across the Western world and Japan condemned the new law, though some activists within Hong Kong chose to step down from leadership positions in pro-democracy groups rather than test the legislation.

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ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Infrastructure protests outlawed: The provincial legislation making it illegal to hold a demonstration affecting broadly defined “essential infrastructure” in Alberta received royal assent today, setting up a Charter challenge against the law.

Lighter shade of a green new deal: A climate-change action plan revealed by Democrats who control the U.S. House of Representatives would aim to eliminate greenhouse gases by 2050. The proposal isn’t as aggressive as the so-called Green New Deal favoured by more progressive Democrats.

Carl Reiner dead at 98: Friends, fans and disciples of show-business legend Carl Reiner were paying tribute to his contributions to comedy today after news that he passed away last night.

Bolstering oil spill response: In the event of a future oil spill off Vancouver Island’s west coast, a new partnership means the response may be led not only by the Canadian Coast Guard, but by a local First Nation as well. The Pacheedaht First Nation is a partner in plans to build a new Coast Guard facility in Port Renfrew, B.C.

You had your best-laid plans and then COVID-19 came along and hammered the entire economy. But you’ve got this – if you have the right information. In Stress Test, personal finance columnist Rob Carrick and editor Roma Luciw guide you through one of the biggest stress tests your finances will ever face. Episode four is on how to crisis-proof your finances going forward. Listen now and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

MARKET WATCH

Investors were cheered by the rosy side of today’s Statistics Canada report, which noted GDP likely grew by 3% in May, and the worst of the pandemic-related economic impacts may be in the past. At the close, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index was up 125.50 points, or 0.82%, at 15,515.22. It represented the TSX’s best quarter since 2009.

Similarly, improving economic data in the United States sent the S&P 500 to its highest quarterly gain since 1998. Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 241.16 points, or 0.94%, to 25,836.96, the S&P 500 gained 48.55 points, or 1.59%, to 3,101.79 and the Nasdaq Composite added 190.65 points, or 1.93%, to 10,064.81.

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TALKING POINTS

Ontario is repeating the mistakes on farms that it made with long-term care

“The conditions on many farms are not dissimilar from those that plagued long-term care homes early in the pandemic. ... Bunkhouses on many farms lack the space and amenities to separate healthy workers from those who become ill. Seasonal migrant workers sleep in bunk beds and share communal kitchens and bathrooms, some of which are squalid and decrepit.” – Robyn Urback, Staff Columnist

Critic’s notebook: Online Juno Awards were small, safe and skippable

“Without the cheer of the crowd and missing the acceptance speeches, the naming of the winners lacked punch and personality. Moreover, the whole thing seemed unmoored: in an industry where musicians make most of their money from live performances, there was little mention of the dire reality facing the winning artists.” – Brad Wheeler, Staff Arts Reporter and music critic

Uber drivers have a chance to reset the rules

“Uber markets drivers as entrepreneurs who can be their own bosses, but I found that drivers do have a boss – an algorithmic one. The power of an algorithmic boss is harder to see, but it monitors drivers’ performance, such as how harshly they brake; communicates expectations with helpful hints, to avoid the appearance of direct supervision; disciplines them with temporary or permanent deactivations; and withholds key information that drivers need to make entrepreneurial decisions.” – Alex Rosenblat, senior researcher at the Data & Society Research Institute.

LIVING BETTER

Exclusive: Dancers join The Globe for a Canada Day tribute in distanced times

Available early tomorrow morning, a Globe-produced video will showcase dancers and musicians from nine Canadian arts organizations putting their own spins on Leonard Cohen’s Anthem, an iconic song about looking for hope in the darkness. In this article, the dancers share their inspiration with Brad Wheeler. Check the same link tomorrow to see the performance.

Disney+‘s Hamilton is tremendous entertainment, perfect for the (living) room where it happens

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With wide cinematic release of the hit musical thwarted by the pandemic, Disney+ will stream the original Broadway production of Hamilton starting Friday. It’s less a cinematic achievement than a long-awaited immersion into the vision of creator Lin-Manuel Miranda for audiences who have yet to see it in person. And, thankfully, Barry Hertz writes, it doesn’t disappoint.

TODAY’S LONG READ

An Innu path for Innu people: Who’s deciding the future of Labrador, and how

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For the Innu people of Labrador, the journey to self-government includes a land claim that began in the 1980s, a vote on a form of political independence – and a serious obstacle: a competing land claim by a group that asserts Inuit-European ancestry.

As Greg Mercer reports, the Innu are dismayed that the long-awaited opportunity to rebuild their community around their traditional culture could escape their grasp. The federal government says it can negotiate overlapping land claims. The NunatuKavut Community Council making the other claim is already setting up shop on the disputed territory and wants a compromise to share the land with the Innu.

Read the full article here.

Related: Canada Day not a cause for celebration in many Indigenous communities

Evening Update is compiled and written weekdays by an editor in The Globe’s live news department. If you’d like to receive this newsletter by e-mail every weekday evening, go here to sign up. If you have any feedback, send us a note.